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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23726776">From the Roots</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SavicusVonde/pseuds/SavicusVonde'>SavicusVonde</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto, 더 게이머 | The Gamer (Webcomic)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Friendship, Gen, OC, Semi-Self Insert?, gamer - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:07:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,457</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23726776</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SavicusVonde/pseuds/SavicusVonde</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Born into a world he vaguely remembers and ensnared in the darkness beneath tangled Roots, Dai strives to change the world and himself from a dark future. But darkness is difficult to see when he is buried in it himself. The Game has begun. OC/sort of SI centric. Gamer style.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a bright and sunny morning in Konoha and with it came the normal bustle of a lively populace. There were crowds of people down many side streets and promenades, not to mention the main street that cut through the centre of village that was overshadowed by the Hokage’s complex and the huge stone monument behind it. Hundreds of people, both ninja and civilian ambled idly down the main thoroughfare. Moving into and out of shops and enjoying the brief calm of a morning of enjoyable weather and relative quiet.</p><p>Yoko Kanezawa was one such civilian. She was a young woman, barely into her twenties with fair features; a gentle curve to her face and equally gentle smile and brown eyes that matched her hair. Earlier that morning she had quietly slipped out of her home to go grocery shopping, careful to close the door as near to silently as she could to avoid waking her parents and headed towards the nearby grocery shop.</p><p>The morning was always her favourite time in the village, especially in the earlier hours. She always tried to wake up at seven, even though she often didn’t have to, just to experience the atmosphere; be it either from just sitting by the window of her room or as she was now, going on an early morning shopping trip. A benefit of living in a shinobi village, compared to the rural villages her parents and her grandparents had grown up in, was the more flexible working hours of most stores that sold daily necessities. Yoko herself worked in the grocery store she was visiting part-time, sometimes taking the night shift to man the till for any shinobi that returned late at night or had no other time to get their shopping done.</p><p>As she passed through side streets and across the busy main road, Yoko smiled and waved to the regulars that she saw out at this time of morning. Some were academy students heading in early, a few others were genin on their way to the village’s many training grounds to train, there were a rare few chuunin, but she barely ever saw them or anyone of higher ranks. Everyone that she greeted returned a smile of their own or a small wave or, in the case of the more excitable academy students, a large wave that involved much more of the whole arm and shoulder than normal.</p><p>By the time Yoko arrived at the grocery store, a relaxed smile adorned her face. As the jovial matron of the store called out to her it only spread further.</p><p>“Oh, Yoko-chan! You’re here early as usual,” the older woman chirped brightly, “You really don’t need to come in so early dear, I’m perfectly capable of holding down the fort myself”</p><p>Yoko bowed slightly to her senior and replied simply, “I enjoy it”</p><p>The matron shook her head slightly and tutted to herself, as if she couldn’t believe that Yoko would be so willing to work from early in the morning.</p><p>“Well,” She looked up at the clock hanging on a wall, “It’s almost nine anyway so I suppose it’s not <em>too</em> bad.”</p><p>Yoko rolled her eyes when she was sure that her senior was looking away. She opened her mouth to fire something back but the words caught in her throat.</p><p>Suddenly she couldn’t breathe. Pressure built up around her, closing in and trapping her as she stumbled, scrambling at her neck to pull the phantom fingers from around her throat. A cough erupted from her throat, followed by a retching wheeze that snapped the matron’s attention to her.</p><p>“Yoko-chan?” She sounded confused, until she saw the young woman stumbling around the store colliding with display shelves and sending piles of fruit and vegetables tumbling to the floor, “Yoko!”</p><p>Yoko felt the hands of her friend on her shoulder and fluttering all over, not sure what to do. She stumbled out onto the street, still clutching at her throat even as pain mounted all around her, concentrating in her stomach. Her foot caught on a small rock on the path sending her crashing and skidding on the dusty street. Traffic stopped around the young woman as she coughed and coughed and <em>coughed</em>. For every breath she tried to take an even longer involuntary wheeze followed.</p><p>The last thing Yoko Kanezawa was conscious of was the wind picking up into a frenzy, forcing the people yelling for help around her away and finally, two feet in shinobi style sandals stopping in front of her wide open and watery eyes.</p><p>
  <strong>…</strong>
</p><p>Danzo Shimura stalked through the dimly lit corridors of the Root base, cane tapping angrily against the stone floor as he approached a blank metal door. While he could not profess to be the best sensor in the village, but he would call himself passable, however the room in-front of him was a black hole devoid of any chakra. A blank spot compared to the bustling Konoha streets several hundreds of meters above his head.</p><p>When he reached the door, he rapped on it with his cane twice in quick succession. The door was opened hurriedly and –</p><p>Danzo was almost pushed backwards by a wave of what could only be chakra, as it tried to rush out of the room like too pressurised water in a balloon, but he stuck himself to the floor with chakra. His hand rose instinctually to in-front of his face as he pushed forward against the rush and as he neared the threshold, he was gripped by two pairs of strong hands and pulled into the small chamber. A group of Root agents was huddled inside the room, the two that had helped bring him in closed the door behind him as quickly as they could. They struggled briefly against the strength of the chakra but they managed to finally overcome it with a heave.</p><p>As the slab of metal slammed shut with a clang, black lines flashed into existence on the dark grey walls. Danzo abruptly felt the chakra signatures of Konoha be cut off, he knew that the seals were what had created the blank spot in his senses from the outside. It still felt mildly disorientating to be so isolated, though he wondered whether that was equally from being battered by an absurd amount of chakra.</p><p>In the centre of the metal chamber, an equally metal table had been placed. A table that was crumpling and curling downwards at the edges from the weight of the force that repeatedly slammed into it as a heavily pregnant woman writhed and screamed on top of it. Her voice was hoarse and the moans often slipped into weak whimpers.</p><p>“One of you, explain. Now.” Danzo spoke bluntly and even though they were being pelted by a strong force his voice cut through the room, laden with authority.</p><p>“Sir,” One of the Root agents who had pulled him into the room spoke up from his right in the normal monotone of his shinobi while they were on duty, “At approximately 0900 hours this morning the sensor on duty picked up an unexplained chakra surge near the centre of the commercial district.”</p><p>The man paused briefly but Danzo sent him a <em>look</em> and he quickly continued.</p><p>“As none of our shinobi, Root or any other, were scheduled or expected to be in the area we sent a response team immediately,” Danzo gave curt nod, it was standard operating procedure for his Root-nin to investigate any disturbances. And as he felt his clothes and hair being pushed around savagely by the chakra, he decided it was a good thing that they had. He did not want to think about what could have happened if this was left unattended in the middle of Konoha, “Our response team found this <em>civilian</em> collapsed in the middle of the street. Yoko Kanezawa”</p><p>The shinobi gestured with one glove covered hand to the still moving woman lying on the cold metal slab. Danzo did not have to wonder as to why the man had emphasised the civilian nature of the woman and he was no less perplexed either. The amount of chakra being produced was already bordering on the amount at which he could not see anyone, bar a select few shinobi, producing safely. And yet when he stretched his sensor abilities, wincing through the pain of pushing through the storm of chakra, the woman did indeed feel as if she was only a civilian. Her chakra coils were barely developed, no more or less than what would be expected of an average person. She produced enough for her body to continue to function.</p><p>Even stranger still the child that she was giving birth to, and she was giving birth as there was clear evidence of her water breaking some time ago, didn’t seem to be draining her system at all. In every pregnancy, the mother’s chakra system had to work overtime to produce enough for both the growing life and the mother but Kanezawa’s was completely intact. If anything, the chakra in the air was trying to force itself into her system but could not, as her chakra coils were not developed enough to accept anymore. Danzo had little doubt that if nothing changed the woman would die.</p><p>“There is something else Sir”</p><p>One of the medics that had managed to get close to the woman trudged through the currents to approach her commander, interrupting Danzo from his musings.</p><p>“What is it?”</p><p>“The woman, she-” the female operative hesitated briefly before seeing the cold look in Danzo’s eye, “when we found her on the street there was no sign of pregnancy.”</p><p>His eye widened before he frowned and turned backed to Kanezawa giving birth on the table. Her stomach was as large as one would expect from a mother in the ninth month of pregnancy.</p><p>“You’re certain?” he asked brusquely.</p><p>“Positive, sir. She wasn’t even overweight before we brought her in for there to be any confusion. Her stomach just… grew as we brought her here”</p><p>Danzo frowned, “And you have been able to find out nothing else about her? Or what’s going on?”</p><p>As the medic-nin made to respond the maelstrom abruptly cut out, vanishing as if it was never there in the first place; the only evidence that it had happened was the metallic table. Apart from the area which Kanezawa now lay still upon, it had twisted and furled downwards under the pressure, leaving a silhouette of the women the only untouched section.</p><p>Everything was silent and still in the room, for a moment and then another before suddenly the room burst into action. The medic returned to her peers that had been working with the woman, although even Danzo could see the stillness in her chakra circuit, a slow beat that had come to a complete stop. However…</p><p>“The child is still alive!” The lead medic called from beside the table, a different medic-nin to the one that Danzo had just been speaking to. The discussion of the medics continued sharply and quickly between them as they debated the best way of keep the child alive.</p><p>While this was happening, the door to the sealed chamber was tentatively opened though Danzo made sure that there was a pair of his shinobi on both the outside and the inside of the threshold in case anything else happened. When the door was opened a shinobi in a rabbit mask entered, holding a file that he calmly handed to Danzo before waiting for further orders. He waved the shinobi away as he opened the file.</p><p>Inside there were photos of the woman who now lay dead on the table, rapidly cooling as well as in-depth information about her past. Its contents surprised Danzo, although it wasn’t what was in it that was shocking but what wasn’t. It was one thing to hear from his men that the woman was completely ordinary but seeing her academic records from the civilian schools she had graduated from and her work history, most of which was the grocery she had been found outside of and other small part-time jobs, was another thing entirely. As the medic-nin worked quickly began a surgery to retrieve the child safely, Danzo flipped through a few more pages. There was nothing. <em>Nothing</em> that could indicate what could have caused this. His sensor skills had led him true, her reserves were neither above nor below a standard civilian, which was to say completely negligible in the face of the chakra they had just felt. He sighed tiredly, another mystery in a village of ninja, just wonderful.</p><p>He was disrupted from his thoughts when the huddle of medic-nin around the wrecked table broke into hushed whispers. After strengthening the grip on his cane, he strode over. The medics opened their circle to allow Danzo to see the naked and bloody child that was being held up by the lead medic.</p><p>It was a boy with a tuft of extremely dark red hair, very nearly black and wide, <em>piercing</em> grey eyes. Eyes that stared at him unblinkingly, with a focus that no child let alone a new-born should have. The next thing that struck Danzo was the quiet. Children were meant to cry when they were born but the boy just looked at him numbly without even a murmur.</p><p>“The boy,” Danzo spoke up abruptly, “Is he healthy?”</p><p>One of the medic-nin next to the leader that held the baby ran her hands over the boy, not making contact as she scanned him with a gentle green light emanating from her palms.</p><p>“He is as physically fit as one could expect a newly born babe to be,” Danzo could feel the slight frown on her face even below the mask that she wore, so he waited for her to continue, “But his chakra coils and brain are far more developed than they should be. I’m not sure how to explain this, or even if one such as Tsunade-sama could were she to look at the boy.”</p><p>He had a feeling that she wasn’t just talking about the boy’s chakra system or mind, but the whole day in general. The random collapse of a healthy Konoha civilian, the chakra outburst and the freakish birth, the old war-hawks mind crept towards the thought of it being enemy action. That chakra had definitely been dangerous, if it had been undetected for too long…</p><p>There was a hoarse cough from beside his elbow and with a start he saw that Kanazawa had weakly opened her eyes, even through the drugs that had been injected to initially help with the pain before the chakra surge.</p><p>“What?” She asked blearily, “Where – Where am I?</p><p>Kanezawa turned her head towards Danzo lethargically.</p><p>“Shimura-sama?” She asked again, blearily.</p><p>He lay a hand on her head gently and sent a jolt of chakra through her forehead, sending her into a deep sleep. The girl had been stronger than he had thought, he had been certain that she had died before the birth. As had the doctors it seemed, as they looked as surprised as he felt below the surface but perhaps that was more due to the whole day than her surviving.</p><p>“Sir,” The lead medic-nin lifted the boy slightly, who was now alternating his quiet stare between his mother and Danzo, “What do you want done with the child?”</p><p>He frowned. That was the question, what to do with the freakishly strong new-born? He was very tempted to just extinguish his life here, the paranoid shinobi in him whispered of enemy action and danger. The commander however, saw a powerful new pawn that could be groomed to of use in the shadows, another limb of root to be raised from birth.</p><p>“Take him to the infirmary, I will decide what to do with him later. As for the girl,” he turned to look at her, laying passed out on the near shredded metal table, “dispose of her. I will leave it to you but make it quick, ensure that any that ask after her know that unfortunately the hospital couldn’t save her in time.”</p><p>With that, Danzo turned and hobbled out of the chamber; this was one of the times where he truly felt his age. He lent a little bit heavier on his cage. Already his mind was plotting around the boy and his unexplainable strength, dismissing the girl that would be dealt a quick death. She was a loyal member of Konoha after all. Such a shame that she had seen his face…</p><p>Danzo never saw or felt the gaze of steel eyes on his back change into a glare.</p><p>
  <strong>…</strong>
</p><p>I remembered pain and a suffocating pitch black on all sides of me before I was born. It was with an odd detachment that I realised I was likely not meant to be aware of this bit.</p><p>That was all I got before I was lifted out into a cold metal room and blinding light. When my eyes finally adjusted to the light I was met by what I will admit to being a terrifying sight of many unknown figures with masks stylised to look like animal faces. Once I could bring myself to tear my gaze away from the deer face leering down at me I found myself looking at an old man; his forehead and right eye covered in bandages, he wore a white shirt beneath a strange black robe that looked to me more like a sack. He held a cane in one hand that he leaned on heavily and I was gripped suddenly by a sense of familiarity. Like I had seen this scary old man who stared at me with emotionless black eyes like a shark.</p><p>But what truly caught my eye was a translucent blue box floating between us that was filled with text.</p><p>
  <strong>Welcome</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>The Game has begun</strong>
</p><p>What?</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So how was that? I’ve always wanted to try writing a gamer fanfiction, and Naruto seemed like a good a place to start as any. Being “stuck” indoors has a certain benefit to it I suppose, not that I go outside much anyway. I have a vague idea where I was this to go but any ideas and feedback would be greatly appreciated.</p><p>As to my other fanfiction, I hesitate to call it abandoned as my muse may strike me again to bring it back to me but ultimately I like to write what is stuck in my head at any one time.<br/>I hope you enjoyed, please leave a comment to let me know what you think or if you have any ideas.</p><p>Peace.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The grey wall stared back at me as I glared sullenly at it.  It had been a few weeks since I had woken up in the dingy room covered in weird squiggle like black script. A few weeks since I had been stuck in an equally dark room and bundled up into a barebones wooden crib that looked at any point to be on the verge of collapsing. I was really feeling the love over here.</p><p>I wiggled my little stumpy fingers and equally tiny hand in front of my eyes, I couldn’t help but feel the strange disconnect between my memories and my current situation. These thick digits were vastly different to the ones I was used to, fully grown and dextrous. My current body allowed me too little control. I was, of course, a baby; I couldn’t even move from where I had been lain down except to wiggle slightly. This really couldn’t have happened, there was no way my mind which had been brought up on science and reason and <em>common sense</em> could rationalise these fingers with as much range of movement as a sausage. Okay, so maybe I was in a little bit of denial.</p><p>My past life, and I could only assume it was mine and hope it wasn’t someone else’s just to make this situation even <em>more</em> weird, hadn’t ended suddenly. It wasn’t perfectly clear in my head, more fuzz than memory honestly, but I knew that there’d been no lorry on the road hitting me, no mysterious murder. I had never been healthy, spending a lot of time bed ridden and infirm in hospital, so I couldn’t exactly claim that it was surprising that I had… died; honestly it had always felt like it was coming soon. Maybe that said something, considering I never even got to finish university. All I remembered was going to sleep and waking up here. Where here was, was a different question all together.</p><p>The strange bandaged man was oddly familiar. I couldn’t say from where, couldn’t remember anything specific, just a strange feeling of familiarity amid the sea of hazy memories. It wasn’t like I had known him, I think, just that I had seen him somewhere before. Unfortunately, nondescript black-grey walls and artificial lighting didn’t serve as a landmark. At least I knew I was underground… probably.</p><p>However undoubtedly the oddest thing about my new situation which I was definitely not freaking about thank you very much, was the floating box that had appeared near immediately after I was “born”. From what I could tell, either nobody could see box or it was a normal occurrence in wherever the hell I was. I honestly couldn’t tell which would be worse.</p><p>
  <strong>Welcome</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>The Game has begun</strong>
</p><p>
  <b>{Initialisation Sequence Complete}</b>
</p><p>
  <strong>System has been set-up successfully</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Character Creation </strong>
  <b>initialising</b>
</p><p>Character creation? That seemed rather redundant at this point, I thought as I glanced down at myself again. Even though I was swaddled in cream coloured cloth, I still remembered the pale skin, short legs and round stomach.</p><p>
  <b>Initialised</b>
</p><p>
  <strong>Welcome to Character Creation</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Here you will set your basic self</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>You will have limited options</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Instead your Life will decide your Character</strong>
</p><p>That… made sense in a weird soft way. Although, I think it said a lot about the situation I seem to have be born into (I had to suppress a shudder at this, birth was <em>not</em> something you were supposed to remember) that this seemed normal to me. So, this new life was a game of some sort? I could work with that; I’d played plenty of them in the Before.</p><p>
  <strong>Allocate your initial stats</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Name: ???</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Level: 1</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Exp: 0/100</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Title: N/A </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Race: ??? Human</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>HP: 10</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>CP: 10</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>STR: 1</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>INT: 1</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Dex: 1</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Vit: 1</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Wis: 1</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Stat Points: 20</strong>
</p><p>Oh how typically RPG, and a subpar one at that. What kind of role-playing game doesn’t let you pick your own name and race? Hell, I didn’t even get to pick my appearance. Fantastic. Not only had my life become a game, it had become a budget one. Nothing to do but allocate my points. Ten health points sounded far too low, something would have to be done about that. So thinking, I put 4 points into the vitality stat and watched by HP climb to 50.</p><p>
  <strong>HP: 50</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>CP: 10</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>STR: 1</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>INT: 1</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Dex: 1</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Vit: 5</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Wis: 1</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Stat Points: 16</strong>
</p><p>Honestly, I knew next to nothing about this game and I had the strangest feeling that whatever this system was, it preferred to let me work things out on my own. The one hint that I had gotten was that these were only the most basic stats and if this did turn out to be any sort of <em>decent</em> RPG game, I’d get more points from levelling up. It seemed to me that spreading out my points evenly would be a pretty alright idea. I shrugged to myself, or as much as a baby could, and dumped the rest of the stat points equally.</p><p>
  <strong>HP: 50</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>CP: 50</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>STR: 5</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>INT: 5</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Dex: 5</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Vit: 5</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Wis: 5</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Stat Points: 0</strong>
</p><p>So, vitality increased health and wisdom increased whatever CP was. Seemed straight forward so far and the other stats seemed self-explanatory. Who knew (re)designing yourself was this easy?</p><p>
  <strong>Congratulations on finishing attribute allocation</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Proceeding to New Game Perk selection</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Remember</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <span class="u">Perks will not always only have a positive effect</span>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <span class="u">Perks are not guaranteed to be permanent</span>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Select 1 perk from each section</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <span class="u">Background</span>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Civilian Born: With a civilian background, you do not gain any additional stats per level. However, you have a 100% increased reputation gain with civilians but a reduction of 20% to reputation gain with ninja from prestigious ninja clans. Additionally, you gain more money per mission </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Uzumaki Clansmen: Being one of the Uzumaki, you have their infamously strong lifeforce, providing 5 extra point in Vitality every level and doubling CP (including modifiers) from all sources. Additionally, you have a 100% increase in experience gain towards the art of sealing. You may also gain access to techniques exclusive to the bloodline.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Senju Clansmen:  Descending from Senju bloodline lends you both chakra and health in spades, you have a 50% increase to HP and CP from all sources as well as 2 extra points in Vitality and Wisdom every level. Additionally, you gain a 20% boost to experience gain from any of the three major ninja arts of ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu. You may also gain access to techniques exclusive to the bloodline.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Uchiha Clansmen: Wielders of the famous (or infamous) dōjutsu bloodline limit the sharingan, you boast increased dexterity compared to your fellow shinobi as well as strength, gaining 3 extra points in each per level. Furthermore, you grow proficient in the use of ninja tools and weaponry 100% faster and any fire jutsu you use is stronger (depending on level). You may also gain access to techniques exclusive to the bloodline.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Further Clans are unavailable currently</strong>
</p><p>What.</p><p>I recognized all those names, Uchiha, Senju, Uzumaki? And chakra too? Was this thing trying to tell me that I had been reborn into the <em>Naruto</em> universe of all places? It was suddenly all together hard to breath; I could hear the soft baby pants coming in and out, but it felt like I wasn’t getting any air. What a time to find out that a baby could have a panic attack.</p><p>Okay. Okay, deep breaths. Focus on the positives. I’m alive, I get another chance at life and if this was anything to go by maybe I could actually be good at it. Make friends that weren’t just online and I could go outside and have fun and be normal. Or the closest to normal one could be in a world full of super-powered ninjas who could call down meteors from the bloody <em>sky</em> and make valleys with some funny hand gestures and – no okay, relax. Maybe I could just stay away from all that. Be one of the faceless civilians. I looked back at the floating box full of options and choices that all implied something dangerous.</p><p>Maybe not.</p><p>Somehow, I felt like being inconspicuous wasn’t really an option here. Not when life was apparently a video game. Then, what would be the next best thing? Taking the [Civilian Born] trait wouldn’t paint a target on my back, but it also felt kind of lacking in self-defence, no boost to any skills or traits? That was out.</p><p>Any of the clans sounded great on paper, or glowing floating box. Whatever. Being an Uzumaki would be great chakra wise, I could throw out jutsu all over the place and be great at the amazingness that is sealing. Maybe I could even get those kick-ass chains? Senju would give me that great boost ninjutsu, taijutsu and genjutsu as well as the general increase to my HP and chakra. The clan technique could even be the wood release! The Uchiha obviously had their cheat code eyes, learning techniques just by looking at them was so busted. All the Uchiha perk gave were nice and all but the eyes were the main draw.</p><p>However, I couldn’t just jump in on any of those, the reason being that I had absolutely no idea at what point in the show I was in. The old guy I saw when I was… “born” looked vaguely familiar but I couldn’t place him and without any knowledge choosing the wrong option was a straight road to (another) death. Had Uzushio been destroyed and the Uzumaki destroyed or scattered yet? Was Kushina dead and had Naruto been born? If so, then being an Uzumaki would be risky with no clan to back me. The Senju, while once powerful had quickly become just as scattered as the Uzumaki, so if I was anywhere near the show then my only direct family would be Tsunade right? And Senju blood always seemed valuable in the show… Yet the idea of possible getting mokuton just seemed too badass to dismiss</p><p>Finally, the Uchiha. This option had the most glaring issue. The Uchiha massacre. Was I before it? Then would I survive it or be slaughtered by the overpowered master himself Itachi Uchiha. And if it had already happened then I would likely be stuck with the avenger and a stigma against my clan with the massacre constantly being held above my shoulders. Yeah, I don’t think so, the Uchiha were <em>out</em>.</p><p>So really, I was choosing between being an Uzumaki or a Senju. Honestly, it wasn’t like I would be losing either way. One way I’d be super good at sealing (which was, as I already stated, <em>awesome</em>) and have ridiculous chakra reserves or I’d have loads of health and chakra. For all I know, I could even unlock mokuton which was overpowered as hell from what I remembered. Is there some kind of randomizer in this game? I’m not sure I can choose between the two and it’s not like I had a coin hidden in the clothe I was swaddled in to flip…</p><p>
  <strong>Are you sure you wish to randomly select your Background between:</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>[Uzumaki Clansmen]</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>[Senju Clansmen]</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>{Yes} {No}</strong>
</p><p>Wow it really does? I wasn’t entirely being serious you know. The game was silent in response even as I just stared at the textbox. This is a really big decision and to leave it up to chance seemed a bit.</p><p>Oh well, what’s the worst that could happen? I end up a super powered ninja? Scoffing, I selected the affirmative response and the sound of a pachinko machine started rattling directly into my ears. This continued for a few seconds, before bells and whistles started trumpeting. You know the typical sound a slot machine makes when you win a big jackpot? Imagine that but erupting right inside your ears. Ouch.</p><p>Finally, once the sound had stopped and my ears stopped ringing I read the textbox that had reappeared right in front of me.</p><p>
  <strong>Your Background has been randomly selected:</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>[Senju Clansmen]</strong>
</p><p>I let out a brief sigh of relief, glad that the game had made the decision for me. As I ‘clicked’ confirm, my body began to glow a soft white that grew in intensity until it was a hard, searing light that forced me to keep my eyes screwed shut. When it eventually faded after a few minutes, I had to blink the spots out of my eyes. Is that what it felt like to be flash banged?</p><p>My body didn’t look any different, my small frame was still covered in baby fat but my arms did feel a bit lighter and I did feel a lot... healthier? I might’ve been imagining that though, or maybe my stat changes were only taking effect now?</p><p>
  <strong>Please choose your Name for your new Life</strong>
</p><p>My name? Crap, I sucked at naming things. Naruto was a Japanese show so I couldn’t go by my old name or I’d stand out even more. A western name among a see of Japanese wouldn’t do me any good if I wanted to blend in. The problem was that I didn’t know much Japanese, I was studying it at university <em>but</em> like I said I never finished. Never got anywhere close really, didn’t even get to go to the country. That was depressing.</p><p>Okay, keep it short keep it sweet. Something that would be hard for even my woeful memory to forget. The only names that came to mind were ones from cannon themselves and those were out, I could only imagine that getting confusing if or when I ran into the person I shared a name with, so those were out. Next came names from other anime, but I didn’t know if I could call myself something like Ichigo; I felt like I would always be looking over my shoulder for an orange haired teen. I needed a name that I didn’t associate with anyone, that I could learn to take as my own.</p><p>Short and sweet. Short, sweet. Maybe… Dai? That could work, two syllables. It could work, I didn’t think that I knew any important characters by that name, even if it was a little uncomfortable close to Sai. If there were any, I couldn’t think of them but that could be my failing memory. Whatever, it would work.</p><p>
  <strong>Congratulation on completing character creation</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>For successfully making your new self, you have been granted the Gamer’s Perks</strong>
</p><p>A small ‘ding!’ noise went off in my ears as a new textbox appeared.</p><p>
  <strong>You have been awarded some perks!</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Gamer’s Body: Your life is a video game and with it your body! You rest instead of sleep, regaining your HP and SP (amount varies on where you are sleeping) when you do and recovering from all damage.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Gamer’s Mind: Keep your head in the game! Your mind is resistant to emotional extremes, allowing you to keep your cool much easier. But beware because there are always limits. Furthermore, your mind is immune to mental manipulation such as genjutsu.</strong>
</p><p>Wow. Just wow. Those were some exceedingly overpowered perks. Where was the balancing team for this? Not that I was complaining or anything! Please, feel free to burden me with game breaking abilities, somehow I feel like I might be able to suffer through such an unbearable</p><p>
  <strong>You are now ready for The Game</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Good Luck</strong>
</p><p>That makes more sense. I guess completing the character creation (me creation? Wow this is weird) was like the confirm button for my changes. Cool. I checked my stats page again and was definitely pleased by the results.</p><p>
  <strong>HP: 105 (70)</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>CP: 105 (70)</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>STR: 5</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>INT: 5</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>DEX: 5</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>VIT: 7</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>WIS: 7</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Stat Points: 0</strong>
</p><p>I whistled to myself, or as much as I could, whistling didn’t seem to work very well in undeveloped body of a child. This whole childhood thing was going to suck wasn’t it. There was probably a reason why kids generally didn’t remember all the time they spent growing up. Probably that it was just plain <em>dull,</em> and they couldn’t do anything.</p><p>Anyways, I suddenly had a lot more health and chakra than I did before. Things were looking up from the dying thing. This time I got to be a powerful shinobi badass! The most exciting thing I got to do before was… well I don’t know. Maybe playing sport? If I was stuck here, there were definitely worse places to be; like I could’ve been put into the Tokyo Ghoul universe or Berserk or any number of other monstrously depressive anime shows where I would no doubt be killed walking down the street while still low level. Yeah, there were definitely worse places to end up.</p><p>But while I was stuck here, in this dingy room somewhere, I had nothing but time to think about what I wanted to do. Did I want to interfere in any of the main plot stuff? Hell even if I didn’t try to get involved in that, I couldn’t claim to be intelligent enough to think through how any of my actions might affect the overarching events of the world. Who knows how any tiny action could affect something on the other side of the world., the butterfly effect or whatever it was called? Did I even really have a choice? For all I know, the main way I get experience points could be through the main quest. I didn’t hold all the power here; the game system did.</p><p>Because if there was one thing that I was certain of, this time I wouldn’t be perpetually ill. In fact, as a Senju I’d be much hardier than the average person, even from most shinobi around my ‘level’. Armed with that knowledge, I knew that no matter what happened, I would get strong. I would ‘level up’, until I knew that I could be left and alone and actually live my on life for once. No more trips to the hospital, no more constantly worrying about my deteriorating health. A second chance, one that I was damn sure I wouldn’t waste. I clutched my fist closed in silent conviction.</p><p>Although, looking at my pudgy baby hands, I was a <em>baby</em>. I couldn’t even control my body properly, as I flexed my fist open and closed my fingers felt thicker than they should be and slow to respond to what I wanted. As my stomach rumbled in a foreboding way, I suddenly remembered the diaper I had on and blanched.</p><p>Worst. Tutorial. Ever.</p><p>
  <strong>…</strong>
</p><p>“Danzo-sama”, an emotionless voice spoke up from his side, blank white mask staring at the floor as the Root Nin knelt with one hand on the floor beside him, “The preliminary test results on the boy’s blood have been received.”</p><p>Danzo said nothing, and the man beside him took that as the sign that it was to keep going.</p><p>“He is a Senju, Danzo-sama.”</p><p>The leader of Root just nodded, not particularly surprised. Not unlike the Uzumaki, the Senju bloodline had spread far and wide in the shinobi world. There were many people out there with the diluted bloodlines of either family, having married outside of their clan and left their respective villages.</p><p>However, the Root ninja kept talking, “But Danzo-sama, his bloodline is extremely strong. It is even purer than Tsunade’s own blood.”</p><p>At this Danzo’s eyes widened, shocked. For the boy’s blood to be more Senju than Tsunade herself… it simply wasn’t possible. He had multiple witness in his ninja for boy being born to that random civilian girl, a nobody in every sense of the word. Her family had never produced a ninja before, let alone been related to the renowned Senju Clan. Even if the circumstances of the boy’s birth had been anything but normal there was no way he could be a Senju, let alone of pure Senju blood.</p><p>He shook his head. The how of it could be investigated later, and it <em>would</em> be, if Konoha could learn how to create Senju, the things that could lead to…</p><p>That was neither here nor there though, right now, Danzo knew he had to decide on what to do with the boy. A child of pure Senju descent had been dropped almost literally into his hands.</p><p>The masked ninja to his right remained kneeling, eyes averted from his superior but even then, he could still see the ruthless smirk that flittered across the old man’s weathered face. Scars and wrinkles crinkled to cast what would have been a truly horrifying visage if the man were still capable of feeling such emotions.</p><p>Meanwhile Danzo’s thoughts had reached their conclusion. Truly, the old war hawk thought, the gods must favour Konoha.</p><p>To gift him with this perfect tool.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So I wanted to make this chapter longer but this seemed like a reasonable place to stop it. I’m still planning out the story from here, but the gamer elements should start becoming more prominent soon. There’ll likely be time-skips a plenty to get to the point where there will be actual fights and more interesting things happening. I’d like to promise that the next update will be longer or quicker than this one but I doubt that’ll be true.<br/>Anyways, please let me know what you think! Thanks for reading.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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